First a little background: I'm a nearly 70 year old with a long fascination for the history and complexity of the London Underground. In 2016/17 I walked to every tube station ("tubewalking"), following the route above ground; I've visited every station both above and below more than once; I'm currently re-visiting them all to better understand the stations and the various exits to speed up my travel around London. When I finished tubewalking I thought that the Tube Challenge would be a good corollary to it and started planning then. I wouldn't regard myself as fit but I'm lucky enough to be free of any serious ailments and I do a lot of rambling, mainly on long distance paths and I've completed the Thames Path, London Loop, North Downs Way, and others. In attempting the Tube Challenge I knew that I wouldn't break any records. Indeed, I didn't really want to: I do things like this for the personal enjoyment and experience. Geoff Marshall says that doing the Challenge solo would be anathema to him; for me it's the other way round and I'd only ever want to do the Challenge with a route of my own and by myself.
My first attempt was in early March 2020. I was quite inexperienced then and didn't know nearly enough about the timetables, routes, and the best way to get around the stations. I used a modified Labyrinth route, the principal modification being that I reversed it to ensure I could get to Olympia for one of the morning trains. I abandoned the attempt at Northwick Park for three main reasons: I was nearly an hour behind and perhaps not able to complete anyway; there had been heavy rain all day, making surfaces slippery and slowing progress; and my paper travelcard had been corrupted by a gate at South Wimbledon and having to request gates be opened was causing delay.
Then you-know-what got in the way and my second and third attempts were two and a half years later in September 2022. This gave plenty of time for preparation and the subsequent routes were of my own devising.
Attempt 2 was scuppered early on by the late running of the first train, arriving 2 minutes late at T4, and 3 minutes late at T2/3, a minute after the train to T5 had left. Indeed, the frequent late running of train 221 (220 on Fridays) is a significant risk to an early Heathrow start. Even on my successful attempt the other day, it departed at 05:03:55, 1m10s after the timetabled time. In early September 2022, with no backup plan (since corrected) I had no choice but to wait for the next T2/3->T5 train meaning that I was already 30 minutes behind leaving Olympia.
Much later in the day I was at Turnham Green heading for Richmond and was still 30 minutes behind schedule but it was the 10 minute wait for each connection at Turnham Green and the reverse at Richmond which put me an hour behind for the rest of the route and killed this attempt. The branch should have been done early in the day but the delayed departure from Heathrow meant that I had to leave it until later or miss Olympia.
I arrived at Harrow at 23:07 and decided not to risk the last trains at Amersham and Chesham so I took the first train to Rickmansworth and my hotel.
On attempt 3, a couple of weeks later and with a slightly revised route due to timetable changes at Olympia, the connection at T2/3 worked as it should. Then train 222 stopped at South Ealing and the driver made an inaudible announcement. Five minutes later, with the doors still open, he made anonther inaudible announcement and I decided to leave and walk to Acton Town. Other than Google Maps I had no real idea where I was going or how far it was (~2km). I caught a bus when I was halfway there and was 25 minutes behind schedule at Acton Town. I later learned there were signal failures at Acton Town and High St Ken which caused severe delays to both the District & Piccadilly lines so it was already looking unlikely that I'd finish.
I made up time during the day then lost it again to various delays and I arrived at Harrow at 22:57, 10 minutes earlier than the previous attempt. But there were no Watford trains on the DMI (one appeared soon after - 18 mins away!) and it was obvious that the 23:02 wasn't coming. This was the final straw and I once again took the train direct to Rickmansworth and the hotel.
During the winter I took the time to better understand the routes around stations and my knowledge of the system in general and by early this year, with another slightly modified route involving leaving my car between Amersham and Chesham to save the backtrack to and expense of the hotel, I was ready to try again.
On 22nd March train 221 was, as usual, late arriving at T2/3 but train 222 was still there and all was well.
An hour or so later I learned that the Richmond branch was closed by a signal failure at Kew Gardens so I changed my plans and hoped to return to it later.
The Richmond branch re-opened in mid-afternoon and I diverted to it from my second visit through Earl's Court. Of course, this was repeating some stations I'd already visited but it was that or skip the branch and accept that today wouldn't result in a completion. I was 30 minutes ahead when I left Earl's Court but, thanks to a slow journey to Richmond and a poor reverse because the waiting train left before the doors opened on the incoming train, I was 30 minutes behind on my return to Earl's Court. The closure of the Richmond branch was the only real problem of the day and will cause me to do another attempt even though I was ultimately successful today.
It was at Moor Park when a storm started, with driving rain and high winds. I hoped this would have abated by the time I needed to walk 2km to my car at Chesham. With the storm still raging, I made the slow journey - 1h17 for only 36 minutes of travel - back to Moor Park and on to Chesham then Amersham for my first successful completion.
My left foot was sore and with that and the storm I'd considered phoning for a taxi from Amersham but everyone else had had the same idea and the station forecourt was a mass of waiting private hire taxis with no practical way of uniting the cab with the person who'd booked it. Fortunately the rain had all but stopped and my foot was a little better so I walked the 2km back to the car and the short drive home.
Despite the delay caused by the protracted closure of the Richmond branch, my final time of 19:22:42 was only 7m57s longer than my expected time. A re-run should result in a reduced time so I'll plan that for as soon as possible.
Thanks to everyone involved in the Challenge: for the hints on routes I gleaned from various sources; to those involved in making the apps which make modern Challenges so much easier to plan and do; to the obviously tipsy guy at Chesham who was concerned about the old man (me!) staying on the train and wanting to make sure that I was OK; and to my long-suffering wife for listening to me go on and on about the best way from A to B and which door to be at for the quickest exit at Hobbs End station...
